So I bought one of these from Wes Wong, about two years ago, still growing big and strong, around 6 or 7 inches. Although it's got more olive green on it then what one is suppose to look like, makes me doubt it might not be Neolissochilus benasi. I made a post sometime back about one of my iridescent shark losing its eyeballs, I finally found the culprit. I had two jullien golden carp, both were roughly same size as all the masheers and Neolissochilus benasi, 6-7 inches, living peacefully for a long time. A week ago, I came home to find one of the Jullien's eyeballs, ripped out of their sockets, floating upside down, near death, putted it out of its misery. Didn't see it, so I assumed all the masheers decided to gang up on the poor big eyed fishes. Just today, sitting on my bed, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little commotion with the tank, went over to have a look, and to find my last jullien with one of its eyeball ripped out, still swimming fine, bleeding, but acted fast and removed it from the tank. Looking back into the tank to see who could have been suspect, and I saw Neolissochilus benasi grinding something with its Pharyngeal Teeth, and the only one doing so. All this time, it was this fish alone, that ripped my fishes eyeballs out, and excited every other fish in the tank to attack the injured fish. I'm not aware of anyone else ever having this problem with this species, but only based on my experience alone, keep big eyed fishes away from this species unless they are a couple of inches bigger. There could be other factors that could have cause the attack, but I also have a golden mahseer and it is the longest and biggest fish in my tank, and for sure it doesn't attack anyone, unless its having a turf war with the chinese mahseer which only involve body bashing. Which I got from Wes (excellent fishes indeed). Even though the jullien lost one eye now, if it survives the bleeding, I will take care of it, I'll keep it with a crippled catfish that I got, its got no tail.
Neolissochilus benasi, Eyeball eater
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